


Holtzbert Week 2018

by eringilbertish



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Angst, Catch me never finishing this thing, F/F, Fluff, Holtzbert Week, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-07 07:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15214457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eringilbertish/pseuds/eringilbertish
Summary: It's the most wonderful time of the year again! This year I actually want to give you something to read. Seven short stories of Erin and Holtzmann featuring the other characters and a few cameo.





	1. Her Side of the Bed

**Author's Note:**

> Remember - I am very unsure of my texts and my first language is not English. I hope you enjoy anyway. Also I promise that every fic will end happily.

It’s another sleepless night for her.

Holtzmann turns from her back to her side and stares to the wall. Just a few days ago, her gaze would have stopped to Dr. Erin Gilbert’s sleeping body. But no. This time, it goes right till the wall that definitely needs a new paint on it. The brown tiles behind the dark green wall are showing from here and there.

The engineer sighs. She didn’t even think about that earlier and Erin never mentioned it while she usually is very strict about these kind of things.

Maybe she enjoyed it so much here so she didn’t realize it either. But now she will never be here. Erin never had a chance to nag about it. And God, how much she wants to hear Erin nag about her wall.

But like she mentioned, she’ll never be here.

Holtzmann closes her eyes again. It’s a miracle if sleep finds her again, but she can try. She grabs a pillow that Erin had used, puts her arms around it and presses her face against the pillow.

A mixture of Erin’s perfume and sweat work like anesthetic.

* * *

“Erin, no!”

Holtzmann’s words echo through the empty streets of New York City. Holtzmann feels like she’s someone else because in reality, she would be running towards her friends and trying to run in front of them like taking a bullet for them.

This time, her body freezes and all she can do is stare how first her best friend jumps into inevitable death and how her friend... lover... the love of her life jumps into the open portal right after just to try and save her best friend.

Like her screaming would have helped in none of the cases. Uh, Abby? Please don’t jump? Oh shit, you jumped. Well, Erin, don’t do the same! Oh, there you go. What could have she done? She wasn’t gonna declare her love to Erin in front of Patty, not it a situation like this. And Abby... If Abby says or decides to do something, you can’t change her mind.

It was one of Holtzmann’s worst moments in life to just stay still and lose two most important people of her life.

* * *

“Miss Jillian H—“

“Doctor. Doctor Holtzmann.”

“Right. Dr. Jillian Holtzmann, could you please tell me again what happened?”

Like the death of Erin and Abby wasn’t enough, now the police think that she had something to do with their deaths.

Holtzmann really doesn’t want to open up about this anymore. She has thought about it, over and over again. Every night, every time she throws her arm over the empty spot on her bed.

“There was a portal. The ghost was trying to destroy the city. Abby got an idea of how to lure it to the portal and jumped. Because she got stuck, she cut the cable off and jumped without anything around her. Erin didn’t want to lose her and jumped after her. But... the portal closed before they got back. We tried to pull them back because Erin tied a cable around her waist, but... I don’t even know if it’s possible to come back...”

There’s a silence.

“Would you like to have a tissue, dr. Holtzmann?”

* * *

“Man,” Patty started after placing a cup of coffee in front of Holtzmann.

“Have you slept at all?”

Holtzmann gives the other woman a brief nod. Yes. She has slept about three hours seven minutes and sixteen seconds every night. She’s still surviving. She haven’t set anything on fire and she has only caused medium poofs.

“Yes, Patty, I have slept. You know that I may not get the minimum eight hours and shit what doctors say, but sleep makes it surprisingly easier."

Patty stares the blonde woman who hasn't even touched the coffee. She doesn't ask about what she just said because she knows what she means. She wants to forget, too.

"It's a good thing that ya don't drink or shit. I thought you had no healthy way of coping. I am glad that I was wrong."

Holtzmann lets out a huff big enough that moves a few escaped hair away from her eyes. Patty only now realizes that Holtzmann had been working on something. She paid attention only because it's the first time after the big battle against the ghosts that Holtzmann had actually started to do something else than sit behind her desk and stare into something that doesn't exist.

"Whatcha working on, baby?" Patty tries to ask but Holtzmann doesn't bother to reply. If you ask Patty, the sheets look a lot like what Rowan drew to his copy of Erin and Abby's book but she isn't sure what those have to do with anything. She just drew them to be blueprints, neater version of the dark mind of Rowan.

"Alright. Drink your coffee. You can find me downstairs."

Patty leaves but Holtzmann doesnt't lift her intense gaze from the blueprints. Her mind is full of ideas and possibilities but the recent life realities have shown her that she shouldn't get too excited before something actually happens. But if there is a possibility... Shouldn't she just do what a good scientist does and make a hypothesis and try it out? The results may disappoint her but if Erin and Abby were here, they would tell her to do it, no matter how weird or crazy it is. If this wasn't about Erin, the redhead would probably say it would never work and it is not worth it but to Holtzmann, it is.

Everything is worth Dr. Erin Gilbert.

 

·　　 　 ·· 　　　 + 　

　　 . .. ⊹

˚ 　　

　　　　　 * ˚ 　 　 　　　 　

˚ 　　　 ˚ ✦ 　　 · 　　 * ·

 · ˚ 　 + ✷

 

 

 

"If we just made the portal open again, we could see if there is a way to get back!"

Holtzmann is running in front of whiteboard, from side to side, drawing little pictures and writing down numbers after numbers. She isn't completely sure what she is doing and she may not be right with everything she is describing and explaining to her mentor but she is trying her best. In her own opinion her idea is awesome and worth to try, even if it means that she and Patty must do the work they and the other two did. Cleaning up the streets from ghost scam doesn't seem like an obstacle if it means that she gets to hold Erin in her arms again and she gets to have her best friend back.

The older woman in front of the whiteboard, Holtzmann's mentor Dr. Rebecca Gorin, takes her glasses off her eyes and places her hand over her forehead. She rubs her temples and takes a very deep breath. Holtzmann knows it doesn't men good.

"And I thought you were crazy with your plan to actualize your theory of a proton gun. Jillian, that idea is awful and I would never encourage you to execute it. That man almost destroyed this city and it took your friends' lives. Why would you do it again? Your friends are most likely dead and have died a long time ago. We do not know what it is like in the portal and if you did it again, it's very possible that this time it's you and miss Tolan that lose lives. You can always make new friends, dear Jillian."

She knows that Rebecca meant good but the last sentence felt like icicles were pushed through her chest and broke her heart into million pieces.

"You don't get it, dr. Gorin! You don't get it because you don't have friends, but—"

"But what?"

"But I love them. Abby was my first actual friend and Erin..."

Holtzmann feels hard to continue. This project is more important than any of her past projects have been. She knows the whole thing is crazier than million Jillian Holtzmanns together but there is a small possibility. Probably one in a million but there still is a possibility!

"I... I love that woman. Dr. Gorin, please help me. We do not have to cause that big of a portal. We just have to open it again. We still have the plans that Rowan made. If you gave your help we could make new calculations and open the portal just a little to see if we can pull them back!"

Rebecca's gaze is cold and she doesn't believe in this for one second, but she has never seen the blonde engineer this sad. Not even when she saved her when she was a young student, lost and in need to be found.

Rebecca found her this time, maybe she has to find her again.

She sighs and puts her glasses back on. She takes her gloves off and places them on the table behind her with a loud slap.

"Fine."

Holtzmann could bounce through the roof from excitement and hope.

* * *

It's the same evening when Holtzmann and Patty find their way to the basement of the Mercado hotel, in full equipment of course. If a ghost or few make it out of of the portal, it's better to deal with them immediately after (hopefully) rescuing Abby and Erin.

"Holtzy, you hundred percent sure about this?" Patty asks. She might not be aware of what all the calculations and formulas that dr. Gorin and Holtzmann worked on, but her common sense says that this may end to either a victory or into a very bad disaster. Most likely to the second one.

"Yes. I may not be right and sure about many things but I am more than hundred percent sure that I love the women that are trapped to the other side and I am right about the fact that we want them out and they want out!"

Patty sighs. Holtzy is nuts but she must admit that after saving the whole city of New York, saving their friends would feel even better. More meaningful. More...

"Damn, I miss those bitches. It was right for them to go there because they were dumb enough to jump but I can't just let them have their party there!"

Patty jumps a few times on the floor that is supposed to be right on the portal they're about to open.

"Hey, hey Abigail and Erin! We are coming!"

 

Erin and Abby were holding on each other tight in the dark hole that was sucking everything deeper and deeper. The only thing that keeps them from getting sucked and falling down is the short cable that's still tightly around something. Abby is sleeping against Erin's chest and Erin's arms are around her best friend.

It sucks in here. At first it was so cool. It was green and sparkly everywhere and it was the best thing that had ever happened to her, career wise. But when they got sucked back and never out of the portal, it turned into a scary mess that will never end. Are they stuck in here forever, hanging on a cable that just continues and continues to the never-ending tunnel of darkness? She knows that because they tried to pull each other up and it was like a big flashback to the high school gym class but then they both remembered that they didn't pass the rope climbing test so they shouldn't even bother. They should try and save their energy for as long as they can, but there's one problem: they have no food or water after sharing the Kit Kat bar in Erin's pocket. They would eventually starve to death.

There is always a possibility for them to just let go and fall into the unknown but Erin is pretty sure that they would decompose to atoms at some point because no ghosts are coming back.

But the thing is, Erin never lost hope. She never stopped thinking about Holtzmann and she knows her well enough to know that she is trying her everything to save them. So as long as they're alive, there is hope.

While she thought she was wrong and there is no possibility to ever be up anymore, in their own world, she hears something from the other side of the tunnel. The portal is quiet, but Abby is snoring so she gently nudges Abby awake.

"Huh?" Abby asks, opening her eyes lazily. She has been weaker than Erin and she explained it herself by the fact that she hasn't had any wontons in 48 hours. Fair enough, Erin had thought. She would kill for a slice of ham and pineapple pizza.

"Be quiet, please. I think I hear something.

The two women listen to the echos that come from somewhere. Jump, jump, jump. Screaming.

"Is that—"

"—it is! Oh my God! Patty!"

Abby and Erin start to scream. They get to do it for a few minutes when the portal around them turns green again. Ghosts start to fly towards the end of the tunnel, a few of them trying to scare Abby and Erin but at this point, nothing scares them. The portal is alive again.

Just like it was when they jumped.

* * *

"It's working! Oh my God! Patty, grab the gun. Shoot every ghost you can that tries to escape from the portal. I am looking for the cable and I am going to pull them out!"

Patty gives Holtzmann a firm salute and runs to the other side of the room, aiming to the hole on the floor. It's big enough for the two women to get out but maybe it's too big because a lot of ghosts are rushing out - too many for Patty. She can't shoot every ghost, she doesn't hit every one of them and after a while she is starting to cause more harm to the basement than destroying the ghosts.

"Holtzy! I am not good enough for this job!"

Holtzmann is on her knees on the edge of the hole, her hand inside the portal.

"Where the fuck is the cable—oh, here it is!"

Holtzmann grabs the cable that was stuck on the floor but on the the other side. It was a lucky guess - she had no idea where to look for so of course her first instinct was to just push her hand and arm into the portal and start testing the air there.

"Holtzy!"

"I can't! I found the cable—shit! No!"

The cable falls from her hands because the pulling towards the portal is too much. The green walls start to grow and having her arm in the portal starts to be very painful but she can't let go now. She has to grab the cable!

"Holtzy, no!" Patty screams when Holtzmann lurches herself towards the portal. Patty drops her proton gun and rushes towards the engineer, grabbing her legs before she manages to drop herself into the green pit of unknown.

"That Gorin lady was right. Ya are gonna get yourself killed!"

Holtzmann holds the cable tightly. Her eyes are full of tears, mostly because of the strong wind in the portal but also because she knows she is so close to get the two most important women of her life out of the portal. One mistake, she loses it all. No mistakes, she wins.

"Patty, please don't let me go," Holtzmann yells and ties a short piece of cable around her wrist so she will never lose it again.

Patty pulls Holtzmann out of the portal, through the green wall. She makes sure she throws Holtzmann and herself far enough from the hole on the floor before they get up and start to pull the cable. It goes on and on and on and on. After many feet of cable it just doesn't seem to ever come to an end. Until then...

"Pull! For the love of God, pull!"

Holtzmann hears Erin's miserable cry and it gives her the power she didn't know she had. She lets out a growl and starts to pull, pull, pull! Patty has hard time to keep up but she makes sure that they keep pulling until the voices of Abby and Patty get clear and it's sure that they are near enough to make sure they're alive.

Holtzmann closes her eyes for a moment. Last pull. This is it. This shows if she was right or if she has just been imagining and she pulls out two ghosts or corpses.

Grab.

Stiff the muscles.

Pull!

 

Two white-haired women fly from the portal, landing on top of the two other ghostbusters. Patty lets out a strangled swear word but it is all happy and joyful.

Holtzmann doesn't think. She rolls away from under the rescued women, helps Erin up and slams her lips against the other pair. It wasn't the best idea since they haven't made it official yet but during the kiss, Holtzmann feels that Erin doesn't mind and this is more than a great way to out herself and the love of her life.

Holtzmann keeps moving her lips desperately against the other lips, not pulling away for air. Erin has to, though. When she pulls away, she gasps and her face is white from being hungry and tired for such long and also now lacking of air. She doesn't look mad, though. She just giggles, throws her arms around Holtzmann's neck and jumps into her arms. Holtzmann supports her body from under Erin's legs that she just threw around Holtzmann's waist.

"Oh God. That looks like Holtzmann was kissing her granny," Abby blurts out.

"Yeah... it kind of looks like that. What happened to your hair anyway?"

Erin and Holtzmann continue eating each other's faces and Abby can't help but smile. She might have been gone for a couple of days but she still remembers. She nudges Patty's side and leans closer to her ear: "Ten dollars."

* * *

The following evening was very eventful for Erin. First, they had to close the portal by pulling enough ghosts in there. Thankfully Holtzmann had brought all their proton packs with her. Then they had to made sure no ghosts were roaming around the hotel. After all that they decided to go for a pizza before they would make an official announcement about getting out safely and informing the police, mayor and everyone else they had to inform.

Then the fun began.

Holtzmann couldn't stop laughing when Erin came out of her bathroom, her hair more orange than Garfield the Cat, President Trump's failed solarium and all the oranges of the world combined. It was Holtzmann's duty to kiss her senseless and repeat again and again that it is fine and she looks hot with this color as well.

When it was time to finally go to bed, they made love. Of course they did. It was their first time doing it as an official couple and Holtzmann made it very special.

Erin was the first to roll on her side and fall asleep. Holtzmann didn't mind. Erin was back in her arms, her warm and soft and always sweaty Erin. After getting this woman back from the portal she will never take anything for granted.

She thought Erin was asleep but apparently she wasn't. Holtzmann must have been breathing into her neck too hard.

"What are you thinking?" she mumbles, her back now against Holtzmann's front. Holtzmann doesn't reply.

"Holtz?"

She looks towards the wall... but now her eyes stop to rest on Erin.

Just like before.

She takes a deep, calm breath and buries her face into the orange hair. Her side of the bed is no more vacant. It's filled, full of her Erin.

 

**Her side of the bed.**

 

_"Nothing much."_


	2. Emergency room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the second chapter of my bundle of fics Holtzmann decides to pop a very big question (and no, it is not "Erin, do we have more Pringles in the building?").

When Erin started working with Holtzmann she had no idea that the emergency room of the nearest hospital would become their second home.

Sure, Erin knew that Holtzmann was very accident prone due to her reckless behaviour around her lab and that just was her personality in general. She didn’t think and when she started to think, it was too late. Usually it ended to a deep cut in her thumb or a bleeding arm or, if she was being very wild and careless that day, she would even break a bone.

Erin found herself from the ER again and again but she never really talked about it with Holtzmann. Okay. She did yell a little every time when she injured herself worse that just a cut you can patch, but it all seemed like a joke to Holtzmann.

* * *

”Hey, babe. That’s just who I am. Explosing something every once in a while builds character! Hey, you really should trying that. Nothing boosts your day more than a little bit of electricity through your body. Right, Er? Haha, Er? Erin, are you mad at me? It was just a small poof...”

There they were again, sitting and waiting on a row of benches in the nearest emergency room. Holtzmann was sipping on her Kool Aid jammer she got from Erin and Erin was filling another form for Holtzmann because her dominant hand was hiding under layers and layers of bandage. Erin remembered everything she had to write down. This was probably her… millionth-or-something-like-that ER form she had filled for Holtzmann during the time she had known her.

”Okay. Jillian Carrie Holtzmann. Date of birth… Address… National identification number...”

”Did you know that my mom used to love Carrie Fisher that much she gave her name as my second name?”

”No. But thank you for telling. That’s very sweet.”

”Heh, she didn’t know that one day I would marry the biggest Star Wars nerd in the whole universe.”

”What?”

”I said that my mother did not know that one day I would marry the biggest—”

Erin turned to look at Holtzmann who was now sucking the air out of the bag very loudly. Erin keeps staring at her girlfriend. The blonde engineer raises one brow, slurping the drops of grape tasting beverage out of the bag. Erin opens her mouth to say something but she decides that it’s better if she doesn’t push it. Maybe she was just joking. That must have been one of Holtzmann’s bad jokes, she just didn’t find the fun from it.

”Er? You look like you just saw a ghost,” she informs Erin and throws her legs apart from each other. She calls that position ’dykespreading’ because if men get to do it, she thinks that she has the right, too. Erin runs a hand through her bangs. Holtzmann hands Erin the empty juice bag and takes another one from her pocket.

”Mm, cherry!” she smacks her lips. ”Anyway, did I turn into a ghost? I wasn’t bleeding that badly, pfft. I have had worse period!”

”You know that when you have period bleeding, that’s not actually fresh blood? Like, you do not get a cut and the blood—”

Erin is interrupted by a loud slurp and a hum of pleasure by Holtzmann. How can one like kids’ juice so much, Erin thinks. Maybe it was a mistake after all. To buy one more juice bag for her. She will turn into a sugar monster. Stupid Erin… And maybe because of that, she just threw a half-arsed proposal against Erin’s face.

”Babe, I know how periods work. So I am not a ghost. What’s wrong? Your face changed its color and you don’t look annoyed anymore like you usually do when we end up here. Now you look more like… that.”

Erin fidgets with the straw of the empty Kool Aid jammer package the blonde just handed her.

”I just… okay. I just thought… you just said that you’ll marry the biggest Star Wars nerd in the universe, and I just thought that you meant me, and then I thought that you just can’t just say things like that without further explanation. It’s like proposing but never giving the ring,” she starts to babble nervously, not sure why she even overthinks this because it clearly was a joke.

Holtzmann goes uncharacteristically silent. She pulls the straw away from between her lips and those lips just curve into a small ’oh’. Erin nods, not sure what to say next.

”Well, I mean, I just kind of announced my plans to marry your nerdy ass. I just didn’t think I would do it this way, at least not here. I just… threw that idea out of me. What do you think of that idea? That I would marry the biggest Star Wars nerd in the whole universe? Oh, and maybe all the universes far, far away.”

Erin snorts. She slaps a hand over her mouth right after, trying to calm her chuckling mouth. Holtzmann flashes Erin her soft grin, nudging the redhead’s side with her elbow.

”I take that as a yes? Hey, come on, Erin. It is not very polite to laugh now. Hey, Erin. Erin! Stop chuckling. You’re killing me, Erin!” she huffs, though she keeps her grin up the whole time.

Erin manages to stop her nervous laughing and she gives Holtzmann a nod. Another. Well, maybe also the third one. Fourth. Fifth. A lot of firm, sure nods.

”You know, I do not have a ring because I did not expect you to get this serious about something I just said, so… maybe some other time.”

Erin just nods again, leaning closer so she can kiss the engineer.

”A kiss is fine, for now. But I can’t believe you proposed me like that...”

 

⋆ 　　 ˚ ⋆ * *.

. 　　　 　 　　

　　 ✵ 　　　 *　 ✫ +

　　 　 · 　　

· ✹ 　　　　　 . ·

 

 

They were finally out of the hospital. Holtzmann’s hand was covered in even thicker and firmer bandage and that’s how her hand would be for a week or two. It wouldn’t stop Holtzmann from working, though. She can use her non-dominant hand for building as well but it will mean more poofs and more almost-heart attacks for Erin.

”Hey,” Holtzmann says and stops Erin in the middle of the street.

Erin wouldn’t let the engineer to the lab anymore today so they were on their way to their apartment. Holtzmann had protested but will surrender this time, only because Erin is extremely cute today and they have to throw a small party of two because they just got engaged.

”Holtz, we are standing right in front of our building’s door. Can’t you tell me once we are in there? It’s cold and I have no jacket,” Erin asks but gets a shake of head and a bounce of blonde curls as an answer.

”I have to tell you something,” she starts and clears her throat. Erin tilts her head.

”Okay, tell me. What’s up?”

Holtzmann takes a deep breath.

”Please don’t be mad, but… that was planned. What I said was planned and I knew you would ask about it. I am sorry if I made you anxious. I never meant to make you that sweaty when you tried to ask about it, but I also didn’t want to just blurt the question out because you seemed like you weren’t getting the hint.”

Erin frowns.

”Oh. But your plan worked after all? You asked if I liked the idea of getting married and I said yes. So doesn’t it mean that we are engaged now?” Erin asks, unsure why Holtzmann looks so nervous when she is just simply admitting that her plan worked.

”Well, yes, but...” she starts and shoves her good hand into her pocket.

Oh. Now Erin gets it. Holtzmann didn’t finish her plan.

Holtzmann drops to one knee, even when it hurts a little because under her is the hard, dirty pavement of New York City but does she care? Not really.

”Erin… I know you did not like the way I asked you so I knew before I even asked that I should have another part of my proposal planned. Do not even bother to ask, yes, I planned to ask you on the street, right next to our apartment building because you know I am a fan of unusual things. That means that I am also a big fan of you. Because Erin… you’re so unusual.”

Erin didn’t realize she was crying but here she is, tears running across her cheeks. It’s so breezy they probably freeze on her cheeks but she doesn’t care. The cold weather was forgotten a long time ago.

”I have made sure that I tell you every day how much I love you and why so I don’t know if you want to hear about all that again, but I am not gonna ask: you are going to hear all about your awesomeness now.”

Erin sniffles into her sleeve, nodding.

”You’re the prettiest girl in the world. Before you ask, yes. You’re prettier than million supermodels combined. Hey, wait. I think you’re a child of million supermodels. Are you?” she asks and makes Erin laugh and shake her head.

”Anyway, so where were we? Yes. You’re the prettiest, kindest, nerdiest, sweetest, softest, best smelling… wait. Yes, all that, and also you are the funniest and your laugh is the cutest and your nose is the cutest, when it does the thing when you laugh, and when you laugh, the way you sound… How can someone not fall in love with you and try to woo you? Wait, maybe that is good. Because you are mine and it is the best thing that has happened to me and pretty sweet things have happened to me. But you are the best of them, no contest. And it feels so surreal to be here, proposing you properly even when you said yes once because I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I get to marry my best friend and the love of my life and I can not believe that I took a risk and half-assed proposed you in the hospital! ER! But I am so damn glad I took that risk and now I can fix everything by throwing this fancy traditional proposal and yes, I lied. I have a ring...”

Holtzmann opens the box. It takes a little long because she can only use one hand but she succees. She holds the box open and Erin lets out a small gasp.

”Is that…?”

” _Yes_. It _is_ your grandmother’s ring. _That_  ring. I wanted to make it on my own but then I thought that I have to ask your hand from your parents and your mother just gave this to me, no questions asked. But it is also beautiful, but definitely not as beautiful as you are...”

Erin lets out a relieved laughter, slowly moving her hand towards Holtzmann.

”So… Erin Gil—Dr. Erin Gilbert. Will you actually say the word ’yes’ this time and make me the happiest gal in the whole world and become my wife one day?”

Not even a second passes.

”Yes! Yes I will become your wife one day. Some day. One day, yes. But I will become your fiancée now. Give me the ring,” she says excitedly and it’s Holtzmann’s time to laugh. She gets up and looks at Erin’s hand.

”I am going to just slide this to your finger because I really can’t grab it with this other hand. So stay still, please,” she says and Erin does what she just asked her to do. She spreads her fingers and the ring slides on easily.

”It’s a perfect fit! Thank Carol for your skinny finger genes that jump from generation to generation!” Holtzmann announces by her ’lesbian God’s’ name. Erin grins goofily and throws herself into Holtzmann’s arms, kissing her passionately. Holtzmann answers to the kiss, wrapping her arms around the physicist.

Everything went perfectly after all.

* * *

”I have one question though,” Erin says and rolls the ring around her finger.

”Huh?” Holtzmann asks and a little bit of chewed chip flies from her mouth because her mouth is full of Pringles.

Erin huffs and takes a piece of soggy chip between her fingers and throws it to the floor, away from her lap.

”Did you burn your hand that badly on purpose so we could go to the hospital and you could propose me there?”

Holtzmann grins sheepishly.

”I wouldn’t say that… that was an accident but I planned to propose you later today anyway. But when we were in the hospital, I was like, oh, screw it. If I propose you there, I could make one good memory in there and you wouldn’t be so mad at me every time we have to go there. I think that did it pretty well.”

 

Huh, Erin thinks.

 

_**Makes sense.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... did you get some more holes on your teeth? ;)


	3. That Was a Real Thing, Right There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holtzmann and Erin bump into an old friend in a place they thought they wouldn't. Holtzmann almost overdoses popsicles. Erin doesn't want to bust a ghost.

Jillian Holtzmann and Erin Gilbert might be two very different persons, but one thing is sure: they both love water and swimming.

Holtzmann is more than in her element when she gets to splash herself into the water. She doesn’t need time to get used to to the coldness of the lake. She just takes a wild sprint towards the water and jumps. It takes about three seconds for her to get soaked from the top of her head to her toes.

Erin is more reluctant with water. She enjoys it very much once she gets in there, but it takes at least a quarter for her to befriend the coldness. She deliberately dips her legs, arms and hair to the water. She uses her hands to like lotion herself with the water before even thinking about completely dipping herself into there.

Usually this ritual makes Holtzmann very impatient and it ends up to the blonde wetting Erin unexpectedly by splashing water with all the power from all her four limbs. Erin screams equally much every time and she also scolds Holtzmann the same way every time. And Holtzmann does not have to expect kisses after any of her splashing attacks.

Once Erin gets her whole body under the water, she feels awesome. She swims beautifully, kicks with her feet without splashing and she knows all the ways of swimming.

She may not be the best swimmer in the world but it doesn’t matter because she enjoys swimming. Sometimes she wonders if she’s different because usually adults only like sunbathing while swimming is for the kids. She feels a little ashamed for that because she goes to the water right after arriving the beach. But then she sees Holtzmann... running to the water, jumping in and giggling like she indeed was a big child.

Then she forgets about it.

She can enjoy the swimming, no matter what anyone says.

* * *

 One afternoon was very sunny and even warmer than yesterday. The degrees were jumping closer and closer to the hundred degrees Fahrenheit mark and it’s no surprise that Holtzmann was melting like a bowl of ice cream. She had gotten very cranky and impatient. She was eating her fifth? Sixth? Seventh popsicle and it was only making her in need to pee more. Erin was sweating her clothes off - literally.

“It’s so hot,” Holtzmann groans and unbuttons the shirt. Her speaking is messy and soon the chest is full of cherry popsicle droplets.

“I get that. But I don’t get why you have to open my shirt.”

Holtzmann lifts her gaze from Erin’s chest to her eyes. She slides the popsicle out her mouth with a pop. Erin grimaces because that was a sure way to make her skin even more sticky from the iced treat.

“I just wanted to help ya out,” the engineer explains easily and throws a wink after that. Usually, and that means in 98.5 percent of situations, Erin would have been very blushed and not able to make any good sentences. But now she was too hot and exhausted to actually say anything back.

So she just huffed to her girlfriend.

“Do like I do. No clothes, no problems!”

Erin rolls her eyes.

Holtzmann is wearing her two-piece swimsuit bottom and a white T-shirt that has a funny print over it.

“No, Holtz. We are not getting naked and you’re not getting laid. It’s too hot for that! I am sorry,” she says empathically and pouts to the engineer.

“Aaaalriiight. But I am running out of distraction ideas. It’s so hot and I am going to die soon. Help.”

Erin chuckles and messes with Holtzmann’s hair. It’s unusually flat from her being very sweaty and the weather is being rather humid so her hair is getting frizzy, not soft and curly like usually.

“You are not going to die. That’s physically impossible because you’ve been digesting ice cream and ice cubes the whole morning. Do you want to go to the beach?” Erin suggests, making Holtzmann’s eyes widen.

“Yes. Yikes, how didn’t I get that idea earlier? Wait. I thought you were still mad about last time when I almost drowned you by splashing too much water at you.”

Erin huffs again. That’s true. She had forgotten.

“Right,” she says between her gritted teeth.

Holtzmann tilts her head and slides off her woman.

“But maybe you’re forgiven... but only for now. We really should ditch the firehouse. We can’t do anything productive today. Patty and Abby are already on their way to home. Let’s close the place for today and go. We can buy us slurpees on our way. Sounds good?” Erin had never seen Holtzmann getting off the couch that fast.

* * *

The beach was... empty. Which was very weird because it was so hot and usually by this time (five in the afternoon) the beach was still full of kids and their parents. So what was going on?

That didn’t seem to bother Holtzmann who was rushing towards the waves and soon Erin didn’t see the engineer. She was already under the water, enjoying the coldness around her.

Erin looked suspiciously around the beach. This was weird. There wasn’t any warning sign. There was no-one to inform to not to go to the water.

Wait. Isn’t water supposed to be sparkly and blue-ish and not glow in green?

It didn’t take long for Holtzmann to run away from the water with her flamingo toy (And Erin had to blew that toy full because Holtzmann wrecked their machine for that. Yes, her lungs still hurt.), screaming.

“That was a real thing, right there!” she yells, rushing to Erin and grabbing her with her cold arms.

“Argh! Why are you screaming? That’s a ghost. You work every day with ghosts.”

Holtzmann calms down. She clearly was staging her screaming but she didn't get the laughs this time. It's way too hot for Erin to have any sense of humor.

“Well, technically yes but... what if they’re like jellyfishes? You know, burning you in the water? And what if they’re like toasters? Once you go to the water you’re electrocuted?”

Erin stares at her. That’s a good point. They haven’t tried that kind of thing in the lab.

“Okay, calm down. What did it look like?” Erin asks, walking closer to the water.

“Um. Like a very big fish. Like imagine those ugly fishes that look like a pile of grey slime. That kind of thing but very big and green,” the blonde explains and gestures the air with her hands, to show the size of it.

“Okay, got it. Okay, let’s see. I am going to call Abby and Patty. Then we will try to take it out there, okay?” she asks.

Holtzmann nods and gets ready for the battle they’re about to have.

“Wait. If it is a ghost, why didn’t anyone call us?”

A man approaches them.

“We didn’t want to cause any more panic,” he says, walking next to Erin who is on the phone now.

“Oh. Makes sense. But where did it come from? And when?”

The man thinks for a moment while Erin informs the girls and ends the call.

“It was here in the morning. It stole all the hot dogs we were selling here, and all the ice cream as well.”

Then it clicks in Erin's head. She doesn't have to go and check if she's right.

“Holtz?”

“Yeah?”

“Is it Slimer or his girlfriend?”

“Wait, I am gonna check again... yep. That’s definitely him.”

Erin rubs her face. Of course.

“Look, sir. He is the only ghost we do not want to bust because it is impossible, he always finds a way out. But he is harmless. He eats a lot, yes, but that is very fascinating. I didn’t know ghosts enjoyed beach and swimming.”

The man looks horrified.

“Please, get him away! The people are terrified! I am going to pay you. How much?”

Erin shakes her head.

“We are going to take him into the lab with us... once again. But next time when he comes, call us immediately. He likes to steal food but he isn’t very fast. And believe me or not, but he has never hurt a living thing. He’s a weird one.”

The man looked at Erin like she was the ghost.

But what could she say? Slimer will always be Slimer.

And... Holtzmann will never be less dramatic about her rendezvous with ghosts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first idea was to be like, of course the title is what Holtz says about her love for Erin. But it was hot here and I went for a swim so I thought, what would these two be like as swimmers? So this is the result. Sorry if I don't do the characters well, this one was a bit rushed. :(


End file.
